HONEY

Honey a natural sweetener

In addition to being a great natural sweetener, honey has a multitude of benefits that many people don’t know about. Have you ever had an unrelenting sore throat? Honey has been proven to be a natural throat soother! Are you an athlete looking for a natural energy boost before the big game? Honey’s unique blend of natural sweeteners gives it the ability to provide quick energy in any circumstance. This section of the Web site will allow you to further explore these and other benefits of honey, and will also be a source for nutrition facts on this pure, natural sweetener. Honey is sweet – that’s a given. But did you know that honey also adds a special touch to almost any recipe? It’s the whisper at a party. It’s the sigh after the perfect bite. It’s the nostalgic feeling of childhood. It’s your secret ingredient with endless possibilities.

Many people think of honey as a drizzle in desserts or a topping for toast. But now more than ever, honey’s being recognized as a versatile ingredient and pantry staple in the kitchen. All-natural honey gives your recipes unbeatable flavor and unmatched functional benefits. From balancing flavors to providing moisture to baked goods, one-ingredient honey performs a slew of tasks, all from one little bottle.

DISCOVER THE VERSATILITY OF HONEY

Sweetener: Honey is slightly sweeter than sugar, so less can be used to achieve the same sweetness intensity.

Flavor: Honey not only imparts a unique flavor to any dish, but it also balances and enhances the flavor profiles of other ingredients used in a recipe.

Emulsifier: Honey acts as a binder and thickener for sauces, dressings, marinades and dips.

Humectant: Honey provides and retains moisture to a variety of dishes and can even extend the shelf life of baked goods.

About Honey

A bottle of pure honey contains the natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from the nectar of plants or secretions of living parts of plants.

When scientists begin to look for all of the elements found in this wonderful product of nature, they find a complex of naturally flavored sugars as well as trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. (Complete information concerning honey’s chemical makeup and nutritional content is available here:

Honey is made by bees in one of the world’s most efficient facilities, the beehive. The 60,000 or so bees in a beehive may collectively travel as much as 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just a pound of honey!

The color and flavor of honey differ depending on the bees’ nectar source (the blossoms). In fact, there are more than 300 unique kinds of honey in the United States, originating from such diverse floral sources as Clover, Eucalyptus and Orange Blossoms. In general, lighter colored honeys are mild in flavor, while darker honeys are usually more robust in flavor.

Production

The color and flavor of honey varies from hive to hive based on the type of flower nectar collected by the bees. For example, honey made from Orange Blossom, the Black Locust or Clover nectar might be light in color, whereas honey from Avocado, Buckwheat or Wildflowers might have a dark amber color.

Beekeepers — large and small — harvest honey by collecting the honeycomb frames and scraping off the wax cap that bees make to seal off honey in each cell.

Once the caps are removed, the frames are placed in an extractor — a centrifuge that spins the frames, forcing honey out of the comb. The honey is spun to the sides of the extractor, where gravity pulls it to the bottom and it can be collected.

Straining & Bottling

After the honey is extracted, it is usually strained to remove any remaining pieces of wax or other particles. Some beekeepers who sell their honey to people wanting "RAW HONEY", will minimally or not strain and will not heat the honey prior to bottling. But most honey processed is heated to a slight degree to make it easier to strain, and less likely to crystallize in a shorter period of time. After straining, it’s time to bottle, label and distribute the honey to the customer .